Articles tagged with 'Berlin'
-
Hottest Day of the Year
by ruth barker 1 Jun 2009 in The Editorial: The Temporary Projects Season
It is glorious outside, and I’m indoors working on PAR+RS. Grr. Still, I had yesterday (Sunday) off – a rare treat for me unfortunately as I’ve been very bust with lots of different projects lately – and I spent it sleeping in Queen’s Park near my home in Glasgow. I can’t feel too ill-treated.
I thought I’d post today as I haven’t written for a while, and wanted to update you on what I’ve been up to. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, if fairly hectic, and I hope the results of my labours will be seen on the site over the next while.
Shezad Dawood’s film Feature was the star of his solo show at Washington Garcia gallery in Glasgow (‘I Knew I Should Have Taken That Right Turn At Albuquerque’ runs May 22nd – 13th June 2009). As second in command at WG – the project is abley directed by my friend Kendall Koppe – I spent much of the week before the show painting the gallery walls black is readyness for the arrival of the artist and his assistant, Grant. Techinical issues aside, the show went smoothly, and I was free to think about in what ways the film itself might be considered a public work.
As a finished product, Feature certainly exists within a gallery context – the film has shown in Eastside Projects in Birmingham, Baibakov Art Projects in Moscow, and was included in this year’s Tate Triennial. Dawood is in many senses a ‘gallery artist’ (whatever that means), and he’s even at Venice this year as part of East-West Divan: Contemporary Art from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
But the production of the film itself was very public. Produced during a residency at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, Feature is acted by a volunteer cast of artists and local people – many of whom belong to the variety of local membership groups that Dawood made contact with during the residency. The variety of both the focus and the membership of these groups reflects the degree to which Dawood integrated himself into the multiple communities of Cambridgeshire, as much as it suggests the heterogenity of any ‘public’ of the region. We see the local Chinese football team and we see (and hear) The Fairhaven Singers – a local Evangelist Christian choir. The Outlaws, a Western re-enactment society became key volunteers, but so did the members of the community’s underground leather scene. Members of the community who heard about the project turned up in costume to audition, and the generous, slightly chaotic nature of this participatory element is very much present in the play of the film – at once controlled, epic, playful, and light in it’s touch.
Feature is a cross genre exploration in ways far more subtle that it’s stated ‘Zombie Western’ dimension. Pulling part the leaves between the private and the public it is very much at home in it’s own constructed, adopted, borrowed landscape. Pop by and see it if you have the chance.
I also met with several people who are at the very early stages of projects – always the most exciting time to talk about the possibilties of the work. It’s great to feel that so many things are at the brink of coming into being and perhaps that’s the most privilaged part of my role here at PAR+RS. Good luck to all those I’ve spoken to over the last couple of weeks, on what are an intriguing range of ideas and possibilities. Fingers crossed that all goes well. I’ll report more as and when I can.
Lastly I wanted to mention the visit made by Adam Szymczyk, director of the Kunsthalle Basel, who was in town to give a talk for Detours . I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with Adam and was again interested in projects he’s been involved in tht span that divide between the private and the public. The Skulpturenpark Berlin Zentrum springs to mind as a good example – a sculpture park located within the former military zone or ‘death strip’ that divided East and West Berlin.
As practitioners engaged in the public realm and the possibilities it offers, these projects offer significant insights into the fluidity that public practice is capable of. I don’t have any answers to the undoubtable questions that they also raise, but the confidence with which people like Adam or Shezad operates inspires confidence in me that public art can continue to be a part of the very cutting edge of contemporary art practice.
More later,
R -
Berlin! Berlin!
by Ruth Barker 13 Dec 2009 in The Editorial: The Temporary Projects Season
Hello,
I’m writing this on Sunday night, because I’ve been working on PAR+RS stuff over the weekend as I may not have much time during the next week (for those who don’t know, I work 2 days a week on PAR+RS). The reason for my curtailed hours is that I’ll be in Berlin Wednesday 16th – Sunday 21st, working on a new performance. How exciting!I’ll be meeting up with lots of friends while I’m over there, so any PAR+RS readers who are in Berlin next week, feel free to drop me an email. I’m also looking forward to seeing Catherine Street, a lunchtime conversation with whom was the catalyst for the trip.
I’m also very much hoping to meet with Harry Sachs, a really interesting artist whose collaborative work with Franz Hoefner seems to inhabit and to question the spaces between art and architecture. There’s a recent book about them: Hoefner/Sachs. I’m particularly interested in the Skulpturenpark Berlin project, of which I’ll paste the details (from the Skulpterenpark website) here:
Harry Sachs
Park Sculpture in Sculpture Park, 2009
Location: Alte Jakobstrasse/Stallschreiberstrasse
The military zone dividing East and West Berlin was the largest park area in Germany during the time of the Berlin Wall. With the only visitors being soldiers of the GDR army, the park had clearly marked routes and a strict dog leash policy. Due to the extensive use of pesticides, the costs of maintainance were low. Lawn mowing and tree care were not necessary.
In the last 20 years, this green belt has received less monitoring and maintainence than in all of its time before. Once partitoned with unavoidable walls, it is now partly edged by fences and structured by random paths, along a spectrum of rank growth of diverse flora and fauna.
As part of the ongoing exhibition series, Landreform, this part of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum will be declared a public park. To increase the amenity values of the place, the existing matrix of trails will be extended by new footpaths, organically blending in with the existing landscape. The rank growth will be secured and cultivated by circular framing. For recreation and contemplation a new park bench will be provided. People are encouraged to further bed plants and to place additional park benches. This sculpture is dedicated to those who have spontaneously used and developed the land for the last 20 years.Interesting eh? I think so. I’ll be visiting the Skulpturenpark and taking some pictures for the Blog, and, as I say, I do hope to be able to meet Harry himself. If I do (he’s a very busy guy), I’ll be sure to tell you all about it.
Anyone got any tips? What do I HAVE to see in Berlin?
More later,
R -
And a very Happy New Year.
by Ruth Barker 28 Dec 2009 in The Editorial: The Temporary Projects Season
Hello,
Completely forgot (in my haste to crack open the sherry) to mention the miraculous Berlin Berg! Many thanks go to Jodi Rose for pointing me in the right direction, and now I can say that I’m a total convert – every city should have one!
Start a campaign now, addressed to a local authority near you. What better dream to start 2010 than a world of beautiful Bergs?
More later,
R -
Merry Christmas!
by Ruth Barker 23 Dec 2009 in The Editorial: The Temporary Projects Season
Hello,
So, I’m back from Berlin, and feel like I’m stepping straight into the holiday season.
Berlin was amazing, and proved to be a really interesting trip. I met with curator Christine Nippe, who’s currently concluding her PhD, which has touched on the fascinating languages of cities and urban spaces. Christine is hoping to pursue an upcoming project in Scotland, as well as publishing her research, so expect to hear more from her very soon. I’ll certainly be looking out for her next project after catching her most recent curated exhibition Hardly Anything in the gallery Upstairs Berlin. Investigating how to represent the notion of ‘the void’, the show was thoughtful, layered, and provided much to discuss.
I also met with Mark Sander and his partner Elín Jakobsdóttir who treated me to a great conversation that ranged around language, meaning, and Elin’s sister’s home-made apple pie! All in all a very pleasant afternoon. Mark has been working on a project that I hope to be able to follow on PAR+RS in which he’s been using his skills as a portrait painter to ‘barter’ language lessons in Cairo, via the mechanism of a street cart. It’s a fascinating project, which may extend to a Glasgow evolution in 2010, so I do hope to be able to share it with you.I met many other fabulous people besides – special Hellos to Catherine, and Anna and Alex (of course) but also to Catriona and Fred, and the remarkable Lady Gaby. My own performance (my reason for being in Berlin in the first place) went well, I think, due in no small part to Lady Gaby’s expertise. My only regret was that unfortunately I was unable to meet with Harry Sachs from the Sculpture park, but as I hear on the grapevine that he may be Scotland-bound in the not-too-distant future, hopefully I may be able to catch up with him at some other point.
For now though, it remains only for me to kick off my work-weary shoes and raise a glass of sherry to the good times promised by 2010. Roll on Christmas – have a great one, everybody!
More in the New Year, with very best festive wishes to you and yours,
xR